ou’ll hear a lot of talk about the “death of the public library” these days. It isn’t simply the perpetual budget crises that many face either. It’s the move to digital literature, and the idea that once there are no more print books (or rather if there are no more print books), the library as an institution will cease to exist.Librarians will remind you, of course, that a library is much more than a book repository. It’s an information center (free and open information, I should add). It’s an educational center. It’s a digital access center. It’s a community center. It’s fairly clear when you describe the library like this that none of these roles are going away (nor should they), no matter what format our reading habits may move to.

But these new formats will indeed change libraries — how they operate as well as how they look. As our books become digitized, there may be less need for row upon ofbookshelves. And as such, that’s a great opportunity for libraries to re-think how to use that space.

Inc.'s John Brandon recently wrote about The Slow, Sad, and Ultimately Predictable Decline of 3D Printing. Uh, not so fast. 3D Printing is just getting started. For libraries whose adopted mission is to introduce people to emerging technologies, this is a fantastic opportunity to do so. But it has to be done right. Another dead…

Researchers could soon enlist help from digital assistants to review vast swathes of literature, according to a new report on artificial intelligence. In tests run by academics at the Universities of Strathclyde and Glasgow, simulated search agents went head-to-head with humans in a computer search challenge – and won.

nickcarman's insight:

No need to go wading through piles of search engine results. Let a digital assistant do most of the donkey work.

Omnity isn’t taking on Google directly, and that’s probably a good thing. But the company is debuting a new kind of search engine today that it is targeted at researchers, such as academics, scientists, financial experts, inventors, medical professionals, lawyers, and journalists.

nickcarman's insight:

This search engine finds links (expected and unexpected) between topics and documents that could be quite useful to researchers.

The public library in Thionville is an example of how libraries evolve to meet the changing needs of communities. The newly opened libraries are no longer the places with rows of beautiful bookshelves. They offer their patrons tons of other media, a space for discussion, and an opportunity to learn new skills. Take a look at the futuristic public library in Thionville, a city of 40 thousand inhabitants in the Moselle department, in northeastern France. The building was opened in 2016. It’s called Puzzle – Mediathèque de Thionville and is located at 68 Boulevard Foch.

This space is exploding with creativity and is full of fresh design ideas.

Let’s start with the floor. The grass is almost everywhere, inviting you to rest and spend some time reading, watching, or studying. There are lots of hidden rooms and alleys. Each one may serve as a quiet reading space. And there are reading bubbles and nooks everywhere!

The library was designed by Dominique Coulon and Associates, an architecture agency from Strasbourg. The creators’ ambition was to create the project that would become a new model for media libraries.

The idea is built around the concept of “a third place” – a place where patrons become actors in their own condition.

My library just received three Samsung S7 devices with Gear VR goggles. We put them to work right away. The first thought I had was: Wow, this will change everything. My second thought was: Wow, I can't wait for Apple to make a VR device! The Samsung Gear VR experience is grainy and fraught with…

Even as it's entered the digital age, the Toronto Public Library has kept real live people at the heart of its enterprises, keeping the world's biggest library system busy and an crucial part of everyday Toronto life.

At some Colorado libraries, there are no overdue fines, no Dewey Decimal System and absolutely no shushing!

A revolution is underway. And leading the charge is Anythink, the rebooted seven-branch Adams County system, which has a smattering of digital studios, 3-D printers, photography labs and a cafe. Anythink has gone from one of the state's worst-funded library systems to a national leader within a decade.

On Monday, Anythink's innovation team was in Austin, Texas, at South by Southwest Interactive to inspire the tech community into collaborating with libraries. Joining a group of spirited librarians known as lib*interactive, the Anythink team hit the streets equipped with temporary tattoos, colorful chalk and a snappy slogan: "Not the same old shhh."

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